in a gentleman to whom I was introduced as their old friend of Lincoln's-Inn. He was the bearer of most welcome tidings, which were told in a few words. It had been his practice to report to the Templetons, from time to time, the progress of the liquidation of their debts; and in one of his letters upon this subject, two or three years before, had mentioned as a curious circumstance, that a distant relative of Frederick's father, who was supposed to have amassed considerable wealth in the East Indies, and was without family, had commissioned a friend in England to make particular inquiries how the young pair were proceeding in the world. It was fortunate that the agent employed to obtain such intelligence had come to the lawyer for information, and had of course received a correct, and therefore favourable, picture of the conduct of Templeton and his wife under their change of condition. When the friendly lawyer had cursorily noticed this incident in his letter to Frederick, it had excited little hope or attention. He had only seen his Indian relative at two periods of his life; once, when the latter had returned home on his furlough, found him a manly, promising boy, and taken a great fancy for him; and again, after his marriage, when they had parted with something more than coolness, in consequence of the old gentleman's venturing to offer his opinion of the imprudent expenditure of his younger relation. The welcome tidings which the solicitor had now to communicate were, that he had received, from the agent of Colonel Templeton, a full authority to draw for the whole remaining amount of Frederick's debts, with such an additional sum as would put them in comfortable possession of their estate. This splendid act of liberality was accompanied by a letter for Frederick himself from the Colonel, briefly, but warmly, expressing his satisfaction at the good account to which he had turned the consequences of early imprudence, desiring his kindest regards to Louisa, though he had scarcely seen her; and announcing that, before his letter could reach its destination, he should have taken his final departure from India to cultivate better acquaintance with her, and to settle near them in England. I do not believe that the parties themselves were more rejoiced at this close to their embarrassments than was I, though to them it brought no alloy, and to me was attended with the heavy privation of their society. When they removed to their own property, they would, indeed, have induced me by every kindness of solicitation to change my abode also, and to become their tenant, upon my own terms, of a cottage on their estate which would just suit me. But it was too late in the journey of life for me to shift my resting-place, and I remain where I have somehow or other contracted local attachments to every green hill and wandering rivulet about me. The only scene near which I cannot bring myself to stroll in their absence is the cottage in which so many cheerful hours were spent in their society; but I sometimes see them there yet. The female servant, who had accompanied them to their retirement, continued with them until they quitted it. They then gave her an annuity for life, and the cottage, which they purchased for her, upon condition that she should preserve it in the exact order in which they left it. One week in every summer do they return to pass in it, and then I am again of their circle. Nor is this the only opportunity of which I avail myself to visit them. I sometimes muster resolution enough to find my way to their mansion for a fortnight; and, in my last excursion of this kind, stood as sponsor for the sixth of their little flock. |